3303-07-30 Homecoming
30 Jul 20172301
After leaving The Conflux it didn't take long before I started to see those signs of being back near the bubble. I decided to take the path slightly less travelled, and instead of heading straight across the inter-arm void, diverted slightly rimwards so I remained in the denser areas, but even there I started to come across more and more discovered star systems before finally, Barnard's Loop became visible in the sky. Such a dominating presence in the sky for 1000s of light years, the Loop is the most obvious sign that you're nearly there.
Due to the tantalising sight of home in the distance and the fact that more and more systems out here have been visited by previous explorers, travel became much quicker again. Having 1000s of scans on board, there didn't seem much value in re-scanning old discoveries. As I reached the last couple of kylies, I pretty much stopped scanning anything other than water worlds.
But it paid off. After many hours of hard flying, first I hit inhabited space, then my home system of HIP 16607, and finally after what felt like the longest supercruise travel ever, I was home.
